


For As Long As We Live

by SEMellark



Category: Free!
Genre: Blood, Grim reaper au, M/M, Murder, Nagisa is a little shit no matter the universe, Supernatural Elements, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:57:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3163841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SEMellark/pseuds/SEMellark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruka and Nagisa don't really care about guiding human souls to the Afterlife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For As Long As We Live

**Author's Note:**

> Idk it wouldn't leave me to my peace, much like any other one shot I think up when I'm trying to sleep. 
> 
> And can I just say I love Nagisa in this, holy shit

A strangled scream startles Haruka from his light doze, coming from within the apartment of which he’s standing outside.

His head jerks up involuntarily, though he isn’t too concerned when the terrified shriek is cut off almost as soon as it begins. Haruka maintains his lax position leaning against the wall, tilting his head back the slightest bit and opening his mouth wide in a yawn that is particularly useless.

It’s not like he even needs to breathe or sleep.

The scent of iron is thick in the air as a cloaked figure fazes through the wall beside him, licking blood from its fingers, and Haruka eyes that twisting pink tongue hatefully, wishing for all the world that it had been his turn to revel in a late-night snack.

“You didn’t have to be so loud.” Haruka says, tone flat despite his annoyance.

“But she was so much fun!” Nagisa exclaims, reaching up to push back his hood. His face isn’t any better off than his hands, pale skin practically dripping with the woman’s blood. There’s a mischievous glint in his magenta eyes as he stares up at Haruka, as if he knows exactly what’s going on in his head. “Her eyes got so wide when she saw me. I thought they were gonna pop right out of her skull.”

Haruka huffs, pushing away from the wall and turning his back on his partner, heading for the stairs. “Let’s hurry up and leave before anyone comes to see what happened.”

“What’s the rush, Haru-chan?” Nagisa chirps, and he quickens his stride until he can loop his arm through Haruka’s, reaching up to tug Haruka’s own hood back. “Don’t you want me to tell you what I did to her?”

“Not particularly.”

It’s nearly two in the morning, so they don’t really have to worry about anyone spotting them as they descend the steps back down to the main street. Not for the first time, Haruka wonders what the humans would think if they saw them, two hooded figures wandering around this late, one practically covered head to toe with blood.

“Her blood tastes so nice.” Nagisa sighs, leaning his head against Haruka’s shoulder. “It’s almost as good as her soul was, if you can believe that. I’ll let you lick it off me if you wanna.”

“You know, Nagisa,” Haruka says flatly, rolling his eyes as his companion bursts into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, still clutching at Haruka’s arm, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were propositioning me.”

“Who, me? That’s highly improper conduct for a Reaper, Haru-chan, even _I_ know that.”

Haruka can’t help but smirk, and the two of them exchange a mirthful glance before pulling their hoods up once more.

It’s laughable, really. Improper conduct for the two of them is vastly different from what they learned when they were fledgling Grim Reapers.

For starters, a Reaper is never supposed to kill anyone who isn’t on his or her List, as Nagisa just did. Reapers are also not supposed to defect from the Order, as Haruka and Nagisa have.

They just enjoy killing. And it was hard to get their fix when they had to report back at the end of every shift.

Luckily enough, the two of them have just enough magic to conceal their presence in the human world and kill as sporadically as they are able. The only downside is they have to take turns, hence Haruka’s lackluster mood.

By day, they are high school students. There is nothing special about them. From their grades to their attendance, everything about them is perfectly ordinary. Nagisa is known only for falling asleep in almost all of his classes, whereas Haruka is unapproachable, unsociable and unwilling to converse with anyone who isn’t Nagisa.

Truthfully, it’s a pitiful existence. Haruka inherently despises humans and often wonders how someone of his stature came to live among them. The humans’ only redeeming quality are the souls they harbor underneath their flimsy skin, and Haruka will continue to milk them for what they’re worth until someone comes to stop him.

But even then, they would have to kill him first.

“Tell me, Nagisa.” Haruka says, glancing up to the star-speckled sky as Nagisa wanders around ahead of him, possibly looking for another easy target despite already having had his fun for the night. “Do you regret leaving the Order?”

“Oh, hell no!” Nagisa exclaims, spinning around to fix Haruka with a wide-eyed, slightly hysterical look. “I never want to go back there! Never ever! There are too many rules and regulations to follow and no one lets me eat the souls I collect. There’s no fun in being a Reaper if I can’t use my abilities to do what _I_ want every once in a while. Why, do _you_ want to go back, Haru-chan?”

“Hardly.” Haruka scoffs. “If I’m to be forced to live for eternity, I’d rather not go out of my mind with boredom.”

“That’s the Haru-chan I know and love!” Nagisa grins, and even through the dark, Haruka can see remnants of blood staining his companion’s otherwise flawlessly white teeth. “Don’t you ever forgive those nasty humans for bombing your home to bits. And _I’ll_ never forgive them for calling me a witch and burning me alive.”

The blond Reaper then tosses his head back, arms held away from his body as he shouts, “You thought me reading a book was bad, ya old bastards? Well, now I have a kick ass scythe _and_ the powers of Death at my beck and call. But guess what? _I’m still not a witch!”_

“I think they burned you because you’re insane.” Haruka says. He isn’t concerned that Nagisa is shouting like a madman in the middle of the night. So long as they have their cloaks on, humans cannot see them until Haruka and Nagise choose to reveal themselves. “I doubt much has changed since then.”

“Rude.” Nagisa shoots back, lowering his arms back down to his sides and spinning around to continue his walk down the darkened street. “Those geezers back in the colonies would accuse anyone of witchcraft, you know. My older sister was put on trial with me for sleeping with a man who wasn’t her husband. That’s kinda worse than what I did, if you ask me, but whatever. I wish they would’ve just hanged me like they did her, though.”

“Have you ever thought about going back to New England? At least to see what it’s like now?”

“Nah. Iwatobi is where it’s at. But if I ever do go back, you’ll have to come with, Haru-chan. Oo, I can show you where I was buried! Maybe we can dig up my bones if they haven’t turned to dust already.”

Haruka shakes his head but says nothing. Nagisa has been dead longer than he has, so Haruka can’t even begin to understand how this life has affected Nagisa mentally. He’s been slightly unhinged for as long as Haruka’s known him, but it merely adds to the blond’s charm, somehow.

Nagisa is the only Reaper who loathes humans as much as Haruka does. They found that common ground with one another almost as soon as they met, and it really shouldn’t have surprised anyone when they left the Order together. Oh, sure, other Reapers were sent to bring them back, but once the supernatural body count began to rise, they immediately backed off.

Still. Haruka knows that the Order won’t allow them to continue as they have been for much longer. Renegade Reapers are more dangerous than vampires, witches, or even demons.

They were given scythes to serve a greater purpose, but the two of them really have no desire to serve anything but their own agendas.

Haruka and Nagisa don’t care who they kill or why, and that’s what makes them dangerous.

Nagisa abruptly stops walking, though Haruka continues to move forward, assuming that something trite has caught the other Reaper’s attention.

“Haruka.” It’s enough to freeze him in place. Nagisa’s back is stiff through his cloak, and his movements are slow as he reaches behind his back, fingers spread wide, and materializes his scythe. “I think the Order sent someone to pay us a visit tonight.”

Haruka growls and immediately calls forth his own weapon from the shadows, gripping so tightly at the hilt his fingers turn white. Nagisa may act childish, but he is older and far more skilled a Reaper than Haruka. His judgment is to be trusted.

Nagisa moves back with inhuman speed, coming to stand beside Haruka. He holds his scythe behind him idly, clearly not on the offensive just yet, so Haruka wonders how much danger they can truly be in.

After a few tense movements, Haruka sees movement beyond where Nagisa had been standing previously, and the environment seems to bend and shift slightly before two cloaked figures are standing before them.

Their hoods are down, and Haruka feels Nagisa tense beside him.

“Mako-chan! Rei-chan!” Nagisa says brightly, though his words are clipped, his tone icy. “The guys upstairs must be getting pretty desperate if they’d send you two after us.”

“Don’t confuse desperation for calculation.” Rei hasn’t changed a bit, not his appearance or his reserved way of speaking or even the look he gets in his eyes whenever he’s around Nagisa. Haruka refuses to look at Makoto. “Better to send those who know the situation than those who do not.”

“You haven’t changed a bit.” Nagisa nearly purrs. “Still as obedient as ever.”

Nagisa reaches up to pull back his hood with his free hand, and Haruka is quietly pleased at the horrified look on Rei’s face when he sees all the drying blood on Nagisa’s skin.

“Why do you look so shocked?” Nagisa asks, tilting his head just so. “I thought you said you knew the situation?”

“I didn’t think you would have recently killed when we came to fetch you.” Rei says quietly. “Stop this, Nagisa, Haruka. It isn’t right.”

“When is any of it ever right?” Nagisa wonders aloud, taking his scythe out from behind his back and swinging it through the air idly. It’s something he does when he thinks. “I think it sucks that we have to guide humans to the Afterlife when humans are the reason we’re dead in the first place. And stop looking at Haru-chan like he’s a piece of meat, Mako-chan, it’s kinda weirding me out.”

“Rei is right.” That voice. Haruka flinches the slightest bit, hoping no one will notice. But there’s no point in hoping. Makoto notices everything. He always has and most likely always will. “Just come back with us. I know for a fact you both aren’t malicious people.”

“People.” Nagisa mutters, simmering in fury. “You know, I really hate you sometimes, Mako-chan.”

“We aren’t people.” Haruka says, speaking for the first time. Rei’s violet eyes snap to Haruka, and Haruka knows Nagisa is inwardly glad to have the attention away from him, if even for a moment. “We haven’t been for a long time. You can’t expect all of us to go through what we did and retain any semblance of who we were before. Nagisa and I may have chosen to keep our human forms, but it isn’t who we are or ever will be again.”

“You don’t believe that, Haru.” The blue-eyed Reaper can’t help it. He snaps his gaze to Makoto on instinct and is immediately pinned by those glowing green eyes. They were the first thing Haruka saw after he died the first time, and secretly, he hopes they’re the last thing he sees if Death ever comes for him again. “You can’t.”

Nagisa laughs, shoulders bouncing as he heaves his scythe downward with enough strength to actually imbed the blade within the concrete of the street. Makoto and Rei simultaneously take defensive stances, but Haruka knows Nagisa has no intention of fighting them tonight.

“You think you know him.” Nagisa giggles, speaking to Makoto. “And you think you know me, Rei-chan. How come? ‘Cause we used to fuck?”

“Because you both talked to us.” Rei shoots back. “We know you in ways the others do not. We _know_ you are more than your lust for souls. Because if you weren’t, you wouldn’t have – “

“Slept with you?” Nagisa cuts him off, turning his head just so to peer up at Haruka through his lashes. “I forget, Haru-chan, why did you sleep with Mako-chan again?”

“Why?” Haruka says, staring at a spot beyond Rei’s shoulder as if his mind is no longer preoccupied with the situation. And it isn’t. His thoughts are instead on a time long ago, back when he was content with being a servant if it meant he could spend the rest of eternity with Makoto. “Because I wanted to not be bored.”

“Come to think of it, that’s why I kept you around, Rei-chan!” Nagisa exclaims. “But then Haru-chan came along, and he’s way more interesting than any of you lot will ever be. He’s just as sick as I am of the whole ‘Grim Reaper’ shtick, and he’s only been dead for less than a century. You two want to help humans, we want to slaughter them all. Don’t you see why things would’ve never worked out?”

“You aren’t as heartless as you claim.” Makoto says sharply, and Haruka knows he’s speaking directly to Nagisa, because he would never use that tone with Haruka. “You could’ve picked from any country in the world to live in, but you chose Japan. I’m willing to bet it’s because Haru’s more comfortable here. You’ve adapted to the culture because it’s what he’s used to. Why would you bother if you didn’t care about anything aside from devouring souls, Nagisa?”

For the first time that night – and possibly in the entire history of the universe – Nagisa is silent, and Haruka is concerned. No matter what he feels for Makoto, Haruka refuses to let anyone upset Nagisa.

But then, in a voice as calm and as deadly as the ocean, Nagisa simply says, “Haruka is different.”

The air is thick with tension and heavy with magic. Haruka can’t tell if it’s all coming from Nagisa or if Makoto and Rei are working on an attack, though in the end, it doesn’t really matter.

“You aren’t saying much.” Makoto says quietly, focus once more on Haruka. He takes a step forward. “Haru – “

It happens quickly. Nagisa wrenches the blade of his scythe from the concrete and lunges for Makoto quicker than it takes any of them to blink. Haruka is rooted in his place as Makoto freezes in his, staring down at Nagisa in slight surprise as the blond Reaper presses his scythe to the skin of Makoto’s throat.

“I think,” Nagisa begins slowly, and Haruka looks away as a bead of blood rolls down Makoto’s throat, “that you two should go home now.”

Haruka hears what Nagisa isn’t saying and closes his eyes, focusing on the tiny apartment he and Nagisa share, a train ride away from the home of the woman Nagisa killed.

When Haruka opens his eyes, he’s exactly where he wanted to be. Home. Away from the disappointment in Makoto’s eyes.

Nagisa is with him, sitting quietly on their small couch, wiping off Makoto’s blood from the blade of his scythe with his sleeve.

“Was that really necessary?”

Nagisa shrugs. “Probably not. Sure scared the crap out of ‘em, though. They didn’t think I’d do it.”

“Their mistake.”

They lapse into silence. Haruka takes the time to recall his scythe and remove his Reaper’s cloak to hang it up in the closet near the door. It feels entirely too mundane and _human,_ but Haruka knows he’s only on edge because of what Makoto had said.

“He called us people.” Nagisa says, as if he’d been reading Haruka’s mind. “Why does Mako-chan have to do things like that?”

“You’ve known him longer than I have.” Haruka replies, and the closet door creaks as he closes it. “Shouldn’t you know how foolish he is?”

“He wasn’t like that until he met you, Haru-chan. All idealistic and crap.” Nagisa sighs, and his scythe evaporates into thin air as he leans back, draping his arms along the back of the couch. “Until you died, he’d never brought back a soul to be initiated as a Reaper either. You were a lot of his firsts. No wonder he loves you so much.”

It isn’t anything Haruka hasn’t heard before. He remembers following Makoto into the light and finding himself in some grand hall soon after. The entire place had been swarmed with people, all walking around and talking as if they were conducting business. As Makoto led Haruka to the end of the hall, all eyes had slowly turned to them, and the whispers of, “Tachibana actually brought back a soul?” began.

Makoto wasn’t the one to teach him how to be a Reaper, but Haruka saw him often. To this day, Haruka can’t really explain how or why he became as attached to Makoto as he did.

Maybe it had something to do with how he died. Everything had been harsh and painful and Haruka felt like he was burning alive until… peace. Makoto gave him that, and he must’ve seen something in Haruka if he brought him back to the Order to be trained as a Reaper.

And even if Haruka hates this life, hates what it’s made him into, he can’t blame Makoto for it. Nothing that guy does is malicious.

“I guess I can understand.” Nagisa sighs, and there’s a quiet sadness in his eyes that Haruka doesn’t think he’s ever seen before. “I brought Rei’s soul back, and I felt the same way about him once upon a time, but… “

Nagisa doesn’t finish, and Haruka doesn’t prompt him. Makoto and Rei’s sudden appearance managed to shake them both, and after spending so long away from them, they were ill prepared to handle the situation.

They may be unhinged, but they aren’t heartless. Makoto and Rei meant something to them, once. And if Haruka is completely honest with himself, he actually does still care for Makoto a great deal.

“Hey, Haru-chan?” Nagisa asks. “You… You wouldn’t have left me here to go back with him, would you?”

“Of course not.” Haruka says easily, and he truly means it.

“But I know you still love him.” Nagisa’s tone is almost petulant, and Haruka suddenly understands why Nagisa had attacked when Makoto tried to approach. “Wouldn’t you want to do what he asks of you?”

Haruka moves forward to plop down on the couch beside Nagisa, leaning forward with his elbows propped up on his knees. “I don’t even know if we’re capable of love. And even if I did, I can’t go back to the Order. I never belonged there. I feel no benevolence toward humans.”

“They’re disgusting.” Nagisa grumbles, shrugging off his cloak. “They’re liars and cheaters. They’d burn a child for reading a book that wasn’t the Bible and bomb cities full of innocent people. I hate that Rei-chan could ever ask me to spare them. That’s how I know things would never work between us.”

“And that’s exactly why I won’t be going back to the Order.” Haruka says firmly. “Makoto isn’t enough to keep me there, so you don’t have to worry.”

“It’s _you_ I’m worried about.” Nagisa says seriously, and Haruka glances at him over his shoulder, confused. “I know how Rei-chan feels about me as the one assigned to reap his soul. Your dependence on Mako-chan is to be expected.”

“That’s not it at all.” Haruka says tonelessly, but Nagisa only smiles.

“Anyway, tonight was a good, productive night.” The blond Reaper says, though his voice only holds a fraction of its usual cheer. “Aside from those bums ruining our party, I have no complaints.”

“How did they find us anyway? We’ve been concealing our presence ever since we got here.”

“My bet is Mako-chan has a few tricks up his sleeve. He’s older than me by a couple hundred centuries. You know, I never did figure out how he died. Must not’ve been that bad if he still cares about humans so much.”

Haruka wants to ask Nagisa if he knows how the ancient Aztecs worshipped their gods but doesn’t. Makoto told him many things in confidence. That was what their pillow talk usually consisted of.

In terms of gruesome deaths, Makoto’s is probably on par with Nagisa’s. The only difference between the two of them is how they chose to see their deaths and how they live their afterlives.

But Haruka doesn’t blame either of them for the way they feel. He just happens to side with Nagisa on the issue of where humans lie on the universe’s spectrum.

“I’m gonna go wash this blood off my face.” Nagisa says, pushing himself up off the couch with a slight grunt. “I’ll ask Mako-chan how he found us later.”

“You think they’ll be back?”

“This is the first time we let anyone live. The Order will think we have soft spots now, so of course they’ll send them again.”

Haruka stares at Nagisa’s back as he heads for the bathroom, and it’s almost subconsciously when he says, “Was Makoto right? About you choosing Japan because of me?”

Nagisa stills. He’s quiet, just as he’d been when Makoto proposed the idea earlier, but Haruka can’t bring himself to regret asking.

“Yeah, I guess he was.” Nagisa laughs eventually, turning just slightly so he can smile at Haruka over his shoulder. “You were the first Reaper I met who understood me, and I really can’t repay you enough for that. You’re the only friend I have, Haru-chan. I want you to be happy.”

Haruka stares hard at Nagisa for a moment before sighing, shifting his gaze to the floor. “You just proved his point, you know. You do care about something other than consuming souls.”

“Heh. Only where you’re concerned, Haru-chan.”

Haruka doesn’t think it’s quite that easy, for he remembers how Nagisa used to look at Rei, but the Reaper chooses not to comment.

After all, Haruka can't quite understand how he continues to love Makoto while simultaneously hating all other Reapers aside from Nagisa.

He'll allow himself and Nagisa this lie. For now, it isn't hurting them.


End file.
